A method for evaluating health care providers' decision making: The provider decision process assessment instrument

Valid and reliable assessment of the clinical decision-making process is es sential for the evaluation of decision aiding methods and effective quality assurance programs. The Provider Decision Process Assessment Instrument is a 12-item questionnaire that measures a health care provider's degree of c omfort with a medical decision. Its measurement properties were studied in two general internal medicine practices. Reliability, measured using Cronba ch's alpha, was 0.90 (95% CI = 0.87 to 0.92). Construct validity was also h igh, with expected negative correlations ranging from -0.53 to -0.69. The i nstrument also satisfied standard criteria for item homogeneity and was rea dily completed by clinicians. These results suggest that the Provider Decis ion Process Assessment Instrument will prove to be a valuable tool for asse ssing medical decision making in busy clinical settings.